Still-life with orchids, oil on canvas by Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, FRS, Hon. RA at MacConnal Mason gallery stand at TEFAF.
THE US is once again the world’s biggest art market. The Chinese are no longer the biggest buyers of art according to a report prepared for The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), now underway in Maastricht by cultural economist Dr. Clare McAndrew. She reports that the global market for art and antiques contracted by 7% to 43 billion euro in 2012. A key factor in this decline is the slowdown in China.
Art buyers are opting for the top end of the market and Post War and Contemporary Art is performing strongly. The top three art buying countries are the US (33%), China (25%) and the UK (23%). The respective values for the three countries are 14.2 billion, 10.6 billion and 10.1 billion respectively.
Post-War and Contemporary Art was the largest fine art sector with a 43% share by value. Auction sales by were up 5% to almost 4.5 billion, the highest ever recorded level. The Modern sector was second overall with a 30% share . Auction sales dropped 17% to 3.2 billion in 2012 from a peak of 3.8 billion in 2011. The volume of transactions in the global art market was down by down by just under 4% in 2012, and down by nearly 30% on 2007. TEFAF opened today and continues until March 24.